Intersection, an experience-driven out-of-home media and technology company, and LinkNYC, the public-private partnership that created the largest free public Wi-Fi network in the world, announced the official launch of the LinkNYC Self-Service Ad Portal. Featuring expanded free offerings and a lower cost of entry for paid campaigns, advertising on LinkNYC is now easier than ever for New York City’s small business community. Intersection’s launch of the portal includes an enhancement of LinkNYC’s LinkLocal free advertising program. Eligible New York City-based community organizations and local small businesses can now display ads on six LinkNYC screens at a time—up from four—at no cost. The update also includes customizable advertising templates and colors, the ability to add a logo or QR code, and an interactive map to help advertisers select optimal LinkNYC locations. The LinkNYC Self-Service Portal is also the home of LinkDirect, Intersection’s new offering for purchasing larger, branded LinkNYC campaigns, which is designed to accommodate budgets of all sizes. LinkDirect allows advertisers to select specific screen locations and campaign dates. Users can upload custom creatives and include a QR code to boost engagement. “These upgrades to LinkLocal will provide hundreds more community-based businesses and nonprofits with opportunities to amplify their messaging through the most coveted out-of-home advertising space in New York City,” said Margaux Knee, Chief Administrative Officer of LinkNYC. “In 2024 alone, LinkNYC provided over $4 million in free advertising space.”
Zest AI enables AI-powered lending decisions, supporting policy simulations, application insights, unbooked application analysis and loan performance monitoring
Zest AI says it has introduced a tool to help banks make AI-powered lending decisions. LuLu Strategy is the newest model of the company’s AI lending intelligence platform. The new offering will — at least initially — be available exclusively to customers of digital lending firm MeridianLink. “By equipping financial institutions with advanced generative AI tools like LuLu Strategy, we’re strengthening the entire financial ecosystem by fostering greater innovation throughout the sector,” Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere said. “Now, financial institutions have better insights to responsibly expand access to affordable credit to Main Street consumers, which strengthens the economy overall.” By teaming with MeridianLink, he added, Zest can scale its solution quickly across the financial services landscape, giving regional banks and credit unions the same level of technology that was once exclusively available via national lenders. With the new LuLu Strategy module, financial institutions can access: Policy simulations: ask LuLu for policy recommendations to achieve certain business objectives or change policy rules and quantify the impact on automation, approval rate, and risk.
Application insights: provide deeper understanding of borrower behavior patterns, analyze application metrics and track borrower statistics over time.
Unbooked application analysis: identify missed opportunities by comparing pricing and performance of funded versus unfunded loans.
Loan performance monitoring: access ongoing intelligence to continuously refine lending strategies with in-depth tracking of loan performance, approvals, automation, and fraud as well as delinquency and charge-off investigations
Prudent AI launches one-touch pre-qualification platform especially helpful for processing self-employed, Non-QM borrowers with 24/7 document submissions, real-time insights and loan recommendations, and evaluating borrower repayment ability in minutes instead of hours
Prudent AI launched Prudent AI Upfront, a one-touch pre-qualification platform designed to improve lender sales funnels. The company claims the product is the mortgage industry’s first of its kind and allows lenders to process more applications, reduce fallout and capture more business. Upfront boosts sales funnel efficiency through three outcomes designed to eliminate manual intervention: 24/7 document submissions, real-time insights and loan recommendations, and evaluating borrower repayment ability in minutes instead of hours. Prudent AI claims that lenders who implemented Upfront reported a 60-70% reduction in document review time while expanding their sales pipelines and a seamless integration into their existing tech stacks. The platform is especially helpful for processing self-employed, Non-QM borrowers, company officials said. “The Non-QM market has long struggled with pre-qualification bottlenecks,” commented Paul Gigliotti, chief growth officer. “Upfront eliminates these barriers. Lenders can confidently serve this multi-trillion-dollar segment with unprecedented efficiency.”
Cantaloupe’s Smart Aisle like Amazon Go is relying on 3D cameras, AI, and weighted-shelf technology to analyze motion and keep track of transactions
Self-service commerce company Cantaloupe is debuting new products designed to promote frictionless retail at the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) Show. The Go Micro kiosk is Cantaloupe’s newest self-service micro market kiosk, designed with affordability, versatility and seamless management in mind. Its compact footprint, integrated barcode scanner and five-inch touchscreen provide a seamless checkout experience for consumers and enables operators to manage all their markets regardless of size. The Cantaloupe Smart Aisle is a 24/7 frictionless retail experience that operates without an attendant, relying instead on 3D cameras, AI, and weighted-shelf technology to analyze motion and keep track of transactions. Customers provide a payment method to enter, and while inside they can grab any item, which is added to their virtual cart in real time. Customers verify their cart before leaving, and the transaction is completed and payment method charged upon exit. Cantaloupe will also be displaying its self-service payment solutions: HABCO will feature a Cooler Café unit with Cantaloupe’s P30 card reader and Smart Lock connect technology; AVS will highlight the Go Micro kiosk and a lineup of Cantaloupe card readers; IDW will showcase the Go MiniX and a Cooler Café unit; ID TECH will display the Go Plus100 kiosk and Imbera will show the Go MiniX kiosk equipped with the P30 card reader. Lastly, Cantaloupe will provide demonstrations of its latest product releases within the Seed software suite, including powerful new tools that bring AI into operators’ everyday platform experience.
Pinterest now lets shoppers use a “more expansive visual ‘vocabulary’ to ‘describe’ their style ideas.- generating the words they can use to figure out what they like about the image, and then further explore and shop
Pinterest is introducing new features to let users find ideas that match their personal tastes. The new visual search tools will first be available for women’s fashion content in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., eventually moving to more categories. The new tools let users find what they’re searching for without using words, by breaking down and decoding images so users can quickly search and shop for the details of an outfit they like. “Whether it’s an overall aesthetic, a color palette, a specific fit, or product category, when users view a Pin, we’ll now generate the words they can use to figure out what they like about the image, and then further explore and shop,” the company said. To help users identify and select the objects that they want more easily, the company says it has added a new animated glow. Also new is a “refinement bar” to help users narrow down their search results and find things that match their style. The company said the new search options are powered by visual language models (VLMs), a form of generative artificial intelligence (AI), to offer users a “more expansive visual ‘vocabulary’ to ‘describe’ their style ideas.” “Our visual search technology represents a shift in how users interact with and discover inspiration,” Dana Cho, Pinterest vice president of design, said. “We’re not simply delivering search results — we’re curating a personalized journey of discovery that empowers individuals to find their unique style, and shop it too.”
Lowe’s rolls out AI assistant for 1700 store associates, marks the first time a retailer has successfully implemented this kind of technology at scale
Lowe’s Companies is introducing Mylow Companion, an AI-enabled employee app developed in partnership with Open AI, developer of the ChatGPT generative AI model. Purpose-built for associate sales floor devices, the app provides access to product details, project advice, and inventory information, and also speeds up the employee onboarding process. According to Lowe’s the launch of MyLow Companion to all associates across its more than 1,700 stores marks the first time a retailer has successfully implemented this kind of technology at scale. Mylow Companion uses generative AI to let associates obtain answers to customer inquiries using natural, conversational prompts, including voice-to-text for faster, hands-free use. Mylow Companion is built on the same platform as Lowe’s recently launched Mylow customer chatbot. Mylow delivers quick, conversational answers directly to customers’ home improvement questions and can provide insights on customer projects during their product discovery, helping ensure they find and purchase the right tools and materials for their projects. Shoppers using Mylow can also refine their local recommendations by providing details like their project budget or ZIP code.
Instacart introduces alcohol-focused Fizz App to tap Gen Z market- lets multiple users contribute to a single order, pay for their own purchases and have them delivered together for a flat fee of $5
Instacart is reportedly rolling out an app targeting Gen Z consumers, centered around group orders of drinks and party snacks. This app, Fizz, lets multiple users contribute to a single order, pay for their own purchases and have them delivered together for a flat fee of $5. Fizz will be complementary to Instacart, with younger users employing the app and then turning to Instacart as their “lives evolve.” The push follows Instacart’s recent move to reduce the minimum spend to $10 from $35 for paid subscribers to receive free delivery, a decision that increased engagement. Instacart began work on the app at the beginning of the year, Daniel Danker, Instacart’s chief product officer said. Merchants offering the drinks and snacks on Fizz are grocery and liquor stores with existing relationships with Instacart. Danker said Fizz will bring more retailers to Instacart.
Indiana’s HEA 1125 recognizes that On-Demand Pay is a unique financial product, and mandates appropriate consumer protections
Indiana has passed earned wage access (EWA) legislation into law. “Indiana’s HEA 1125 codifies the industry’s best practices into law, including recognizing that On-Demand Pay is a unique financial product, and mandating appropriate consumer protections,” EWA provider DailyPay said. The company added that Indiana joins other states, including California, Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and South Carolina. Indiana’s HEA 1125 codifies the industry’s best practices into law, including recognizing that On-Demand Pay is a unique financial product, and mandating appropriate consumer protections. Indiana now joins multiple states across the country, including California, Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and South Carolina, which have also taken affirmative steps to ensure appropriate regulation is in place for the product. “We applaud Indiana legislators for responding to the realities facing working people in the state and ensuring continued access to a crucial financial option with common-sense guardrails that allow consumers and businesses to benefit,” DailyPay Vice President of Public Policy Ryan Naples. The company will make its On-Demand Pay platform available to new and existing clients with operations in Canada, DailyPay said. “Expanding into Canada is a major step in our mission to better serve our multinational clients and partners and to provide On-Demand Pay to everyone, everywhere,” DailyPay Vice President of International Josh Durodola said.
eBay’s new shopping agent will show up wherever a customer is in their buying journey, either by reacting to their request or through predictive messaging inline on the page
eBay is equipping customers with agentic AI capabilities to help personalize and streamline their shopping experience. The new eBay agentic AI shopping assistant delivers real-time, hyper-personalized product picks and expert guidance based on a customer’s shopping preferences as they explore the eBay site. eBay’s new shopping agent will show up wherever a customer is in their buying journey, either by reacting to their request or through predictive messaging inline on the page the user is visiting. eBay is also participating in the research preview of Operator, a new agentic AI solution from OpenAI, developer of the ChatGPT generative AI model. To use Operator, consumers describe the task they would like performed, such as locating a desired product to purchase, and Operator automatically handles the rest. On the shopper side, the retailer offers “Shop the look,” a generative AI tool that provides an immersive carousel of suggested outfits, tailored to customers’ shopping history. eBay has released a “magical” seller listing solution that uses AI to analyze, research and extrapolate details about listings from seller-provided data. The company also offers a selling tool called the “magical bulk listing tool” that leverages generative AI to let sellers upload batches of product images for which eBay will generate draft listings with suggested categories, titles, and item specifics within seconds.
Korl hyper-customize customer messaging by orchestrating an “ensemble of models” across OpenAI, Gemini and Anthropic
Startup Korl’s platform works across multiple systems to help create highly customized communications. The multi-agent, multimodal tool uses a mix of models from OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic to source and contextualize data. Korl’s AI agents aggregate information from across different systems — such as engineering documentation from Jira, outlines from Google Docs, designs from Figma, and project data from Salesforce — to build a multi-source view. The platform then automatically generates personalized quarterly business reviews (QBRs), renewal pitches, tailored presentations and other materials for use in important customer milestones. The company’s core differentiator is its ability to deliver “polished, customer-ready materials” such as slides, narratives and emails, “rather than merely analytics or raw insights.” Korl orchestrates an “ensemble of models” across OpenAI, Gemini and Anthropic, selecting the best model for the job at the time based on speed, accuracy and cost. The company has implemented “sophisticated fallback mechanisms” to mitigate failures. “Rather than just semantic or field-name matching, our approach evaluates additional factors like data sparsity to score and predict field matches,” said Berit Hoffmann, CEO and co-founder of Korl. To speed the process, Korl combines low-latency, high-throughput models (such as GPT-4o for rapid, context-building responses) with deeper analytical models (Claude 3.7 for more complex, customer-facing communications). “This ensures that we optimize for the best end user experience, making context-driven tradeoffs between immediacy and accuracy,” Hoffmann explained. Early indications suggest Korl can unlock at least a 1-point improvement in net revenue retention (NRR) for mid-market software companies because it uncovers previously unrealized product value and makes it easy to communicate that to customers before they churn or make renewal or expansion decisions. The platform also improves efficiency, reducing deck preparation time for each customer call from “multiple hours to minutes,” according to Hoffman.